Limerick City and County Council, in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, launched an €80k Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Challenge to find innovative solutions to address Fire Safety and Universal Access in Historic Buildings.
Limerick City and County Council invited companies to put forward initial ideas to address two of the key issues relating to the reuse of historic buildings within the city centres of Limerick and Dublin - Fire Safety and Universal Access.
Following the tender process a number of companies were interviewed in December 2018 and two successful companies, The Convex Lens and Civic Integrated Solutions Ltd. were selected to proceed to Phase One.
Phase One will run until April 2019 and the proposals will be assessed by a panel to decide whether the company should proceed to Phase Two where the prototype will be further developed.
SBIR is a mechanism which enables public sector bodies to connect with innovative ideas and technology businesses, to provide innovative solutions for specific public sector challenges and needs.
Through SBIR, the public sector can:
- Identify innovative solutions by reaching out to organisations from different sectors including small and emerging businesses
- Create new technical solutions through accelerated technology development, whilst risk is reduced through a phased development programme
- Provide applicants with a transparent, competitive and reliable source of early-stage funding
Through SBIR, SMEs can:
- Compete for each demand driven project in a transparent manner
- Demonstrate a route to market for their solution (SBIR is particularly suited to small and medium-sized business, as contracts are of relatively low value and operate in short timescales)
- Focus on specific identified needs, increasing the chance of exploitation as developments are 100% funded – it is not a government grant
- Retain the intellectual property generated from the project (with certain rights of use retained by the contracting department)
The SBIR challenge is a joint initiative between the Limerick City and County Council, Dublin City Council, Local Enterprise Office Limerick, Innovate Limerick and Enterprise Ireland. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our partners for their support on this exciting and innovative project.
Limerick City and County Council are currently exploring options for another SBIR call later this year. For information about upcoming SBIRs across Ireland please click here